The Chronicles of Final Fantasy
by Yaallo
Summary: Short stories dedicated to the life of final fantasy, story one is an exploration of Valkrum Dunes centred around the young adventurer Damalza, a cocky hume white mage in training.
1. Chapter 1

**Story One: Duranthis and the treasure**

"Hey!" The man's muffled voice came through the door of a room in the Selbina Inn. He knocked twice and spoke again. "Hey, hume, get up! You were supposed to be out an hour ago." Damalza sat up and stretched lazily. The man knocked harder and spoke more impatiently, "If you're not out in five minutes I'm coming in there and dragging you out."

Damalza threw the covers off her and stumbled into the bathroom. She splashed her face with cold water, stared into her blue eyes and splashed it again. Now she was truly awake she was a bit more frantic with her daily routine. She quickly scraped back her hair and clipped it back in a cute pony tail with a silver hairpin. Her fringe drooped over her eyes and some of the hair hadn't managed to be caught by the hairpin and fell to her ears but she was too rushed to care and knew she was pretty enough to get away with it. She stepped out and grabbed her doublet from off the chair next to her bed and slid it over her. At the same time she slipped her knee high boots on with unskilled multitasking that resulted in her collapsing on the bed and rolling around in panic. Just as she slipped her arm through the sleeve the man burst in. She got up and grinned roguishly at him.

"Morning!" she said sweetly, grabbing her gloves and brushing past him, down the stairs and out the front door, calling "Thank you for the stay." after her.

Duranthis wiped the blood from his mouth and winced painfully as he felt his stomach for the knife wound. A little tarutaru dressed in far eastern wear patted him consolingly and Duran's wyvern snuggled up against him affectionately. "We need a white mage Eyedea." He said to his taru friend huskily. The tarutaru nodded in agreement and pointed to Selbina.

"Let's just get out of these dunes first. I don't think we could handle another goblin attack." Eyedea said with a straight accent, unlike the tarutaru who came from Windurst. An elvaan man ran through the trees up to them panting.

"Thank you for waiting." He said with not a hint of sarcasm though you knew it was there. He too had bruises as black as his hair all over his face.

"Sorry Shinbu." Duran replied. The elvaan placed his knuckles by his sides and lifted Duran's arm over his shoulder to support him as the party of three shuffled across the dunes to Selbina. By the time they got there Duran had found the strength to walk but he and Shinbu still both looked pretty beaten up. Once they entered the port town Duran noticed a Hume girl sitting by the path knitting with two large knitting needles and thick blue wool. He couldn't help but laugh at the peculiar sight. The girl was rather scruffy but he still found himself attracted to her. She was probably from Windurst by the state of her. He usually couldn't stand windurstian girls but in this case he could make an exception.

Damalza looked up to see a man staring down on her. He was quite ugly with bulging strong features, scraped back hair and a tattoo across his face, but she smiled anyway as they made eye contact, just to be polite. She then continued with her knitting. She had spent the last of her money on this wool and if she couldn't make something valuable she'd be in trouble. She sure as hell couldn't wangle her way into getting yet another free stay at the inn. The guy staggered over to her and stood above her watching her knit.

"Hi." He said huskily. She looked up to see his wounds, gross! She put her knitting needles down and stood up.

"Hi! That's disgusting, clean yourself up." She said confidently to his surprise. She then put her hands out towards him and started chanting, light streams circled delicately around her hands as she mastered the curing spell and threw the light into his stomach where it gently healed his wounds.

"Thanks!" Duran said and bowed courteously to the hume.

"No problem!" she said cheerfully.

"Hey, we could really use a white mage out there. Want to party?"

Damalza was supposed to be partying with people… That's the whole reason she left Windurst; to gain experience in battles and become a great mage. However she couldn't do it on an empty stomach.

"Will there be rewards?" she asked.

"Yea, we're on our way to a secret beach in search of the treasure supposedly buried there by goblins. I'm sure there'll be plenty to share."

"WOW!" she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him off down the path to the inn, he just followed her, quite dumb-folded. Once they got to the inn she pulled him inside.

"Damalza, get out. You already owe us enough money, I'm not allowed to serve you anymore." said Gillian, the hume cook, washing the plates of yesterday's stew. He didn't even have to look up to know it was her.

"O please… I'm starved! And this time I really can pay you back, honestly! This guy knows where treasure is buried so I can pay you back in…" she looked at Duranthis, "what, a few days?" before he could answer she was babbling on again. "All I want is a few rolls of bread and some sardines, is that so much to ask? O, thanks Gilli you're the greatest!" She said grabbing the food off the counter, "So I'll see you later!" she said, grabbing Duranthis with her free hand and dragging him out the inn.

"HEY!" Gillian called after her angrily. She turned around and went back in.

"O, I almost forgot! How rude of me!" She walked into the next room, which happened to be a weapon shop, and snatched up a shield and hammer from the wall. "It wouldn't be fair if I didn't fight with them, pay for these later? Why thank you, alright Buiiiii!" She stepped outside and looked at the very confused, very shocked Duranthis.

"Hi I'm Damalza!" she said holding out her hand.

"Duranthis." He said taking it and gripping it lightly.

"Can't believe I got away with that… They need better security." She said giggling as they walked back to the others.

"Ok guys, got us a mage. This is Damalza." Duran said once they reached the others.

"Eyedea." The taru said bowing, his hair scraped back in a sophisticated plait and a bandana wrapped round his head. His katanas at his belt were small, but looked like swords in the hands of the small creature.

"I am Shinbu." The elvaan said placing a large hand out to shake with Damalza. She rejected it however and instead summoned another cure spell to heal the bruises on his face.

"Pleased to meet y'all!" she said placing her hand by her head in an army-like salute. "So where's this beach?"


	2. Chapter 2

After an hours walk along the coast of Valkrum dunes Damalza began to get tired. This adventuring stuff was hard… "Can we take a break?" she said collapsing onto her knees on the warm sand and looking up at the others willfully.

"Dam, this would be the fourth time you would have made us rest. No."

Damalza sighed and got up and caught up with Duran, who hadn't even bothered to look back at her let alone stop walking. "You're fine, see? You easily ran to me." Eyedea and Shinbu were walking far ahead. They had only rested once. "Now let's catch up with them!" Duran grinned and started to run.

"Hey! Wait up!" Damalza sprinted next to him and finally got in front of him. "Loser!" She called behind her as she overtook him. Just as she looked back Dam suddenly tripped over something as the beach got more marshy and rolled over onto her front. As she rubbed her head the pugil attacked. The giant fanged fish snapped at her leg and she screamed in pain. As its teeth clenched harder on her leg she grabbed its mouth and tried to pull its jaw off her. Duran came souring out of the sky and plunged his lance into the pugil and its grip on Damalza's leg loosened letting her pull it out and hobble backwards. As Duran defended her she healed it with a quick cure but before she could get up another pugil dived at her face. She reflexively drew her hammer and slammed it into the pugil sending it back into the marshes with a giant splash, but the noise had summoned more and it seemed like a whole family of fish were apon them. "RUN!" Duran screamed just as Eyedea and Shinbu had arrived and the four of them darted towards a cave in the distance. As they ran the shoal of pugils were gaining on them till one leapt at Damalza toppling her onto the floor. "Help me!" she screeched but Duran, Shinbu and Eyedea just kept running, only Duran's Wyvern jumped back and slammed into the pugil that attacked her. She sat up ready to run again but another pugil jumped into her sending her back onto the floor. One snapped at her leg and she threw it off with a quick chant of dia, shooting the sprays of light into the pugil's eyes. There were too many. One snapped at her arm and one at her legs, pinning her down. Another landed a fatal blow into her stomach and clamped down with its piercing fangs.

Once Shinbu reached the cave he turned round and got out his knuckles but none of the pugils had followed. He put them back by his side and spoke to Eyedea and Duranthis who ran up next to him.

"Where's Dam?" he asked with concern, which was unusual. He was generally a quiet elvaan with no expression of emotion.

"Left her. She's dead." Duran hung his head in shame but recovered, perhaps a bit too quickly if he was trying to look guilt stricken. "Atleast she saved us from the pugils. That would be a disaster if we hadn't had her before."

It was easy for the three of them to shrug off Damalza's death. It's not like they hadn't experienced death before. Loads of Duran's friends had died in battle and it didn't faze him. I suppose you could call him a hardened veteran. If not, cold.


	3. Chapter 3

Damalza wriggled uncomfortably as the pugils ripped and tore at her flesh. She had grown used to the pain now and most of her body had grown quite numb. Finally her hammer dropped from her limp palm and into the sand with a thump and she just lay there, as if accepting the fact that she was about to die. But the thump brought her back. It brought her back into reality. She can't die, not like this. Not eaten by mangy fish! Slowly she started chanting, unaffected by the bites and crunches of the pugils. At first she thought she was chanting a banish spell, but as her breath grew more ragged and the symbols of divine light escaped her mouth she knew it was more than that. Her throat felt like fire as the notes of angelic summoning flew out her mouth like shooting stars and the spell was complete. A blast of light left Damalza's mutilated body warping the pugils into another dimension; warping them into purgatory. As the pugils struggled not to leave their world their grip on her and interest in her was lost and she broke free, half running half stumbling up the beach away from the marshes and by the time the spell was over the pugils were too dazed to chase her. When she thought she was far enough away Damalza fell onto her face in the sand. What was that spell? Could it be banishga? She thought to herself. She had heard about and seen that spell at her father's spell shop in Windurst but didn't dare touch it. It was way too powerful for her to master. Banish was hard enough to pull off let alone casting it on everyone around her.

She lifted her head and spat out some sand. She had no time to rest; if she did she'd die of the wounds. She drew up as many cures as she could to close them up before passing out in exhaustion.

"Are you sure this cave leads to the beach?" Eyedea asked, trailing behind the two larger creatures. They were both really quite brutish. He wished he didn't have to travel with them but he needed the money for his wife back in Bastok. He cared not for Duranthis, Shinbu or Damalza but this didn't affect his duty as a warrior. He would have gone back for Damalza had he heard her cry but was too far ahead when they ran.

"No I'm not. But we might aswell try." Duranthis replied curtly. The three of them traveled deeper into the cave until a sharp corner appeared and the light from the beach could no longer show the way. Shinbu turned to the others.

"If we go any further we won't be able to see. Should we press on, or turn back?" Two green eyes peered at Shinbu out of the darkness. Duranthis stared at them, puzzled.

"What?" Shinbu asked on the verge of turning round. The goblin sprang out of the black and jumped onto Shinbu's back, plunging a long butcher-like knife into him. Shinbu screeched and smashed his back against the wall to get the thing off but it clung tightly. "Hold still!" Duran screamed at his friend and grabbed his shoulder, spinning him round to aim at the goblin. He jabbed with his lance and pierced the Goblin's steel armor and dug it deeper into its flesh. He then spun the lance round over his shoulder and pushed down, like a lever, sending the goblin and his spear into the air and onto the ground infront of him. He stamped his big boot on the goblin's chest and yanked the spear out, blood spraying all over his face from the goblin's wound. Shinbu grimaced and stumbled from the sudden jolt of the butcher knife leaving his body but he did not let out a cry. Two more pairs of green goblin eyes appeared out of the black and the ambushers' fired into Duran, hitting him in the leg and stomach. The bolt powered into him and he stumbled forward into a run out the cave, Eyedea following. Shinbu staggered towards Duran aswell but the ambushers' had him in their sights. They fired another two bolts into him and it only took two more for him to fall to the ground dead just outside the cave.

Damalza awoke. It took her a while to realize where she was… at first she thought she was in east saruta-baruta, sleeping in the fields, but then as she turned on her side she felt the coarse sand scrape against her face. She sat up in frustration and brushed herself down. She looked around confused until she remembered the pugils, and…Duranthis.

What a meanie! Just up and left her like that! She would not forget it. She pondered for a while as to what to do next. She could go back, but she only had a vague idea where Selbina was… and even if she did she wouldn't have the money for Gillian. That left one option: go to the cave. She could see it in the distance. It would only take about ten minutes to get there. Perhaps she would get extra rewards out of it by playing a guilt trip on the cowardly boy.


	4. Chapter 4

The wind whistled over Shinbu's body and his black curls blew out of his face to reveal his wide, lifeless eyes. A butterfly fluttered delicately from over the head of the cave, sailing on the strong, snapping gales and landed on his back. It lightly trod across it exhaustedly and eventually it too lay lifeless next to Shinbu. After a long time had passed a hand cupped round the beautiful, little creature and when it opened the butterfly flew joyously into the sky, the sun reflecting off its vibrant wings. Damalza looked up after it and smiled. She turned to Shinbu and knelt beside him; her hand resting on his shoulder. Her eyebrows went low and her mouth tight in a look of deep sorrow. Unlike the veteran party, she had experienced death very little, if at all. She had heard about it in stories but it wasn't even a scratch compared to when it was the real thing. All she could think about was how wonderful life would be if Shinbu had lived. Even though she hadn't known him her heart was broken. He was kind to her and did not deserve this. The feeling of regret and hurt and betrayal was too much for her. She slumped over and lay next to Shinbu, staring into his eyes until the sun no longer shined on them and darkness covered the vast dunes.

Duranthis and Eyedea marched at a steady pace. They had managed to outrun the pursuing goblins and fortunately the crossbow wound wasn't too serious. The odd couple came across the edge of the sea where there was no more caves; only ocean.

"You lied." Eyedea said bitterly. "There are no more caves. Where is the cave Duran?" A smug smile crossed Duranthis' face. His eyes left the tarutaru's and he waded into the water, keeping close to the stone walls edge. The tarutaru followed but found himself swimming instead of wading. Duranthis laughed mockingly. The two waded round for a long while before they reached the secret beach and Duran was eager to get out the water. It was the struggling Eyedea who noticed the goblins and quickly pulled Duran behind the stone wall before he was spotted.

Two goblin ambushers seemed to be talking. They both then turned round and headed into another cave off the side of the beach. "Now's our chance!" cried Duran and quickly splashed onto the beach and onto the white sand.

"Where is it buried?" Eyedea asked warily,

"Give me a minute." Duranthis searched the small, tight pocket on the side of his harness and pried a folded piece of tattered paper out. He eyed it carefully then turned west, counting his paces until he reached the desired spot. "Right here!"

"Let's get digging then!"


	5. Chapter 5

After night had fallen Damalza finally got up and quit her mourning. She was getting hungry. Across from the body she saw footprints heading down to the sea…? She followed and watched the sea suspiciously for a minute before coming to the logical conclusion that they had swum, rather than the illogical one which was that a massive sea monster had come and swallowed them up. She spontaneously jumped into the water after them and round the cave.

Damalza coughed and spluttered as water went down her throat and up her nose, she had discovered sea water was much rougher than the lake she had learned to swim in, in a field near Windurst. She clung to the rocks desperately and dragged herself to the shore. By the time she had got there she found herself panting and feeling sick from all the salty water. She crawled up onto the beach with her head down ready to wretch when the familiar husky voice sounded in her ears.

"Dama!" cried Duranthis, rushing up to greet her. "By Vanadiel! You look more of a wreck than ever!" he knelt beside her and put his hand on her shoulder. Damalza shrugged it off aggressively and in the process ended up clumsily falling on her face in the sand. She crawled away from him and sat up, a look of hatred in her eyes.

"No thanks to you! I can't believe you just left me!" she yelled angrily. "And what about Shinbu? Just up and left him too huh!" She threw a clump of sand at him in her temper and it slammed into his head.

Duranthis dashed at Damalza as she threw it and grasped his hand around her mouth whispering harshly in her ear as she muffled beneath his strong grip.

"Listen hume, I know your upset right now but just try to get your stupid, windy head round it. What did you honestly expect me to do? Fight them all off for you? Now you can do the smart thing and deal with it as silently as possible or you can do the stupid, typical windurstian thing and have a big tantrum bringing all those goblins down on our heads and ruining our chances of getting that treasure!" For the first time Damalza noticed Eyedea who stood a few yards away from them both, digging away in a big pit that almost came to the height of the little guy. He didn't seem to notice or care about the little drama she was having with Duranthis. She pried his hand away and shuffled away from them both, sulking.

After another hour of digging the sun was totally out of site and the moon shone brightly across the sand, which reflected its glow making the whole beach as clear as it were day. The only darkness was the black sea that surrounded them.

"You didn't have to be so mean." Damalza muttered under her breath. The two men ignored her. Damalza drew herself in to a tight ball and put her head in her hands, sighing deeply.

"You know this whole process would be a lot faster if you helped us dig." Duranthis said, shoveling another load of sand out the way. Damalza just looked up and scowled viciously at him. Enough said.

"Got it!" the taru cried excitedly as his shovel thumped on something hard and hollow beneath the sand. Both Damalza and Duranthis jumped excitedly too, despite the tense atmosphere. Damalza crawled to the pit and looked down as Duranthis knelt and revealed the shiny surface of the treasure chest.

"Let's get it out!" He said triumphantly. Eyedea, Duranthis and Damalza all grabbed the edge of the chest and tugged it up with all their might. The chest slowly began to give as the sticky wet sand beneath it released it's grip. The three of them gave one final heave and the chest flew out of their hands and rolled onto the beach and burst open, revealing thousands of gold doubloons that poured out and glistened in the moonlight.

Damalza's face lit up in delight, she had never seen so much money! She dove at the coins and scooped them up into her pockets, ignoring the frantic protest of Duranthis for them to split the rewards in an orderly fashion. Eyedea too jumped at the sight and thought about all the riches he and his wife would share. The two of them were both so absorbed in the excitement they failed to notice the hordes of goblins that immerged from the caves around them. Damalza's joyfully laughter died out as her eyes caught contact with the goblin's bright green goggles that glowed in the night. There were atleast fifteen… maybe more coming from the cave. She had to think quick.

One of them would have to drag the chest to the ocean while the others distracted them, but would the chest even float? They'd have to swim with it clutched in their arms. The goblins slowly formed a semi-circle around the three. Above the scene a small droplet of water fell from the sky and landed lightly on the chest infront of Damalza; shattering into fragments of water molecules and running down the wooden sides.

The calm before the storm.

Quickly hundreds more poured from the sky and thunder and lightning cackled and shook the trees scattered along the beach.

"Dama, take the chest, go now!" Duranthis screeched drawing his spear from his back. He plunged it into the ground and soured into the sky before landing it in the head of an unwary goblin. The rest of the mob drew their daggers and crossbows from their gobbie-bags and prepared to attack.

Eyedea chanted under his breath and three shadows seemed to appear from out of him. Each shadow drew a pair of sharp katanas and charged the goblins. One slashed out with its dagger slicing through the katana of an Eyedea and the shadow burst and faded into nothingness. As the goblin struck, the real Eyedea darted behind it and stabbed both his blades into its back. The remaining shadows danced around the nearby goblins, distracting them from the real prey, while Eyedea emerged and gave killing blows from the darkness. Meanwhile Damalza desperately pulled, yanked and tugged at the chest but hadn't managed to move it two metres before the goblins were on her. As an arrow flew from an Ambusher's crossbow Damalza slipped and fell to the sand out of shear luck and it flew over her. She got up and smashed her hammer down on its head then swung the hammer round, smashing it up through the chin. Another one appeared from where the ambusher fell and Damalza chanted a quick dia spell into its eyes, she had become quite accurate with it, and knelt back into the chest, pushing with all her strength towards the sea.

While Duranthis fought, parrying the little knife strokes as best he could with his heavy polearm, he overheard the cries of Damalza,

"It won't budge, it won't budge!" she spat as the rain drenched them all and Duranthis back flipped out of the fray, leaving his wyvern to snap its jaws at the little creatures and defend them all. He pushed Damalza out the way and slowly scraped the chest along the beach towards the sea. Damalza walked by his side, hammer in hand and arrows shot through the air at them both landing safely on the surface of her shield.

She then dashed away from Duranthis and towards the two remaining Eyedeas that were surrounded.


	6. Chapter 6

The goblins quickly closed in on Eyedea, holding their daggers out provocatively. Eyedea stabbed out with his katanas, trying to keep them back so his shadow could dance between them, but as soon as his katana connected with goblin flesh a new goblin appeared where the other had fallen. Quickly his final shadow vanished as a crossbow bolt flew through its head and Eyedea immediately began casting Utsusemi: Ichi once more. As he did a butcher thrust his long knife into his back and his spell was cancelled as he coughed up blood.

Damalza screeched as she ran towards the goblins, hurling a cure spell at Eyedea in the distance as she watched him sway from side to side, ready to collapse. As she did a bolt thumped into his chest and he jolted backwards and fell to the sand. Damalza wept and cried out in anger, charging the goblins, throwing dia at everyone she could see. The goblins looked round in panic as Damalza stumbled through them towards Eyedea, unable to determine where there enemy was they slashed blindly at each other and at Damalza, slicing across her legs and arms and chest but before the wound could become deep she had already pushed further into the crowd. Eventually Eyedea was at her feet and she dragged him up into her arms. As she did a sharp blade slashed at her leg and she screamed as she buckled, the blue wyvern swept down and clutched on to her back, lifting them both a few feet into the air and struggling to carry them back across the beach. Damalza's feet scraped across goblins heads as they rushed around in confusion, bows going off everywhere and goblins fighting each other in chaos.

The wyvern finally dropped them to the ground in exhaustion beside Duranthis and Damalza fell to a heap as weight was put on her leg.

"Eyedea, Eyedea are you alright?" she mumbled with her palm lightly slapping his cheek in an attempt to revive him. She raggedly drew another cure spell and sent it into Eyedea but the wound was too deep for her to heal.

"Damalza…" She heard him mutter faintly. She pressed her ear closer to his lips.

"F-find my wife, Lian, f-find… please, give her…" His eyes shut and his body slumped as he left the world of Vanadiel to the world of the dead.

Damalza patted his cheek again disbelievingly and when it had no effect she patted harder until she was slapping him and crying "Get up!" at his corpse. Durathis grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the little taru and towards the sea.

"Hold on to the chest!" he spat as lightning cackled above them. He practically tackled Dama until she did what he asked, and they waded into the sea as the goblins followed them to the shoreline.

Before long the two were swimming and the strong undercurrents clutched her and dragged her down, willing her to die, she kicked at the furious waters to stay afloat and as her ears came above the water again she heard the sharp, swift sounds of arrows in her ears, the goblins were firing at the water!


End file.
